RUSH: Right before the program started today, mere moments ago, the president\u2019s new legal immigration plan was outlined, Senators Cotton and Perdue, Cotton from Arkansas, Perdue from Georgia, announced Trump\u2019s new immigration proposal. And again, this is legal immigration. And, folks, the Democrats and the media are having a daily conniption fit.<\/p>\n
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They are beside themselves today because Trump\u2019s immigration program is merit-based, English language is preferred, exactly like Canada has, by the way, exactly like New Zealand and Australia and many other countries that the left hail as enlightened, and, in fact, much the way our legal immigration used to be.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that long ago that you had to learn to speak English. We didn\u2019t bifurcate cultures or any of that. You had to learn to speak English and you had to love America and you had to learn how to do this if you wanted to become a citizen. But all of that has been watered down. And Trump is trying to get back to that. The left is going insane over these points, and the Drive-Bys are doing the same thing.<\/p>\n
Now, this announcement seems to be in line with what a lot of people have been suggesting that Trump do and that is lay out one agenda item, one issue every day to try to control the media narrative. I\u2019ll give you an example of the media narrative.<\/p>\n
I want to go through a list of things that were big last week but are not as big this week. And the way to look at this is this is why you ought to pay scant attention to any of this. And this is just off the top of my head. Last week these items were dominating the news at a frenzied pace.<\/p>\n
Last week these items, it was crisis, it was chaos, it was intense. The Jeff Sessions supposed firing. The Jeff Sessions put-downs by Trump. Donald Trump Jr. and his meeting that everybody thought represented collusion with the Russians. Kushner\u2019s testimony. Pence gearing up to be president in advance of Trump being sent packing. Priebus leaving, White House intrigue. Russia and Trump trying to screw Hillary out of the Oval Office. That story never goes away, but it\u2019s beginning to fade.<\/p>\n
Last week those are the big items, and now this week Trump\u2019s trying to change the narrative with his immigration, legal. This is not the illegal, comprehensive illegal immigration reform. This is a reform of legal immigration. Merit-based is what has the left in a tizzy. And of course the English language is preferred. To them, merit-based is discriminatory. Merit-based is insulting. And the reason for that is that not everybody will qualify if it\u2019s merit-based. That\u2019s kind of the definition of it.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s rooted in wanting the best and the brightest and the most qualified, which exactly should be our requirements! It\u2019s our country! It\u2019s not a welfare state. It\u2019s not meant to be the drain for the rest of the sewer that is the world. But that\u2019s how the left wants to look at it and see it. Because they position everything as everybody in the world is a victim, including many of the people that live here. And the reason for that is the more victims, the more need there is for Washington to take care of them and to save lives.<\/p>\n
So I don\u2019t know how long this is gonna dominate the cycle, but it\u2019s out there now. It probably doesn\u2019t have a chance in the Senate because none of the Trump agenda seems to have an advance chance in the Senate.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: I didn\u2019t see the entire immigration announcement. I had to be doing some other things at that particular time, so I don\u2019t know if this point was made. But, you know, the United States, we are already by far the most open country in the world to legal immigrants. And, hell, to illegal immigrants too. We are by far the most open country. I mean, it isn\u2019t even close. We accept more legal immigrants every year than the rest of the world combined, folks. Now, stop and think about that, and then compare that to all of this tripe that you hear from the media and the left about how “punitive and discriminatory” the United States is.<\/p>\n
And how “restrictive” we are and how we\u2019re “not inclusive.” And we run rings around the rest of the world in just discussing legal immigration. In recent years, you know what the number has been? It has topped 1.7 million a year legal immigrants. That\u2019s something you would never know if all you did was listen to the Drive-By Media. They would have you believe that we hate immigrants and that we keep them out and that that\u2019s why we must have sanctuary cities and that\u2019s why we must have illegal immigration because the U.S. is so exclusive.<\/p>\n
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Now, you could look at that in any number of ways. Yeah, they admit they\u2019re low-skilled. They come here to get skilled. They come here to get educated. They come here to learn. Now, I think the knee-jerk reaction to that number would probably have people saying, “If only one in 15 immigrants come to America because of their skills, it means that they\u2019re escaping strife. It means they\u2019re escaping totalitarianism, escaping poverty, escaping climate change.”<\/p>\n